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I posted this in the Off Topics Forum and haven't had any response so I thought I might post this here:

Good Morning All,

I hope that I have come to the right Forum for this question.

I am a club board member and our club has hit a bit of stumbling stone, our club isn't getting any more new players and a lot of our players from last year aren't renewing their membership. Our club is in a small city and venues for our weekly gatherings (40k, fantasy, magic etc) are limited and our club has been "labelled" as being part of the shop that we currently gather at which some people are not fond of. so I'm asking you guys, how do we get more people on board and to grow the club? what type of incentives should we offer to get people involved etc.

Cheers

Captain Bloody Fists

Do Club events at 'multiple' stores or a 'non-store' location?

I have seen issues where 'store wars' turn into 'club wars' as stores see any going to another store as a betrayal.

I have also seen clubs who organize events at multiple places in the area and it seems to be successful.

If people have an issue with a particular store, and it drives people away, then maybe find a place you can rent space and game there.

We've thought about doing multiple store games but at the second store (there is only two stores that do gaming in town) has no where near enough room. we had thought about getting the warmachine guys to go there and set up a smaller "tournament" style of play to show that we aren't just an arm of the store.

once a year we rent out a hall and do a two day event which seems to work but we allow members and non-members to play and all the difference is five bucks for entry.

sadly we just aren't big enough currently to rent on our own being that we have something like 50-60 members at only pay $20 for a year.

Sorry to hear about your problems but...
Holy Cow! Sixty members isn't big enough????
In most places I"ve been in the states, that would be a serious organization.

That's 60 (from last years count, we're down to like half that) spread over magic, vanguard (most members), 40k (10 at most), x wing and only a few members for Fantasy (we had a bit of crap run with fantasy players)

How about writing and asking those who haven't renewed/no longer turn up why they've left ?

If there is anything like a consensus it could tell you if it something the club is doing wrong (as opposed to the economy etc)

Having run a small club, we ran in a non store location, but got a store to give you a better discount to your members.

Maybe as your in AUS, you could arrange monthly orders from the uk, giving you all the better discount (and offsetting some of the expensive postage) but only offer it to club members.

This way, even non attendees will join up and pay the yearly fee.

Does your club have a Face Book page, or something similar?

We use our club's FB page to encourage members to renew, post Battle Reports and modelling ideas and also run polls to get an idea of what people do and don't like.

It needs to be moderated obviously but we have found it to be a very useful tool and also will give you an opportunity to get across that you aren't affiliated to one store in particular.

I also think getting other stores involved in a small way would help promote you guys as independent.

Could one of the stores offer small prizes for club nights?

Even a paint set or a book would do, and you could promote their store on your FB page.

Wasn't one thread enough?

@OrlandotheTechnicoloured: we've thought about asking and the general consensus is that there is no benefit in joining the club. sure they have free entry into some events and a discounted entry into our monthly tournaments but evidently this isn't enough.


@Djdom: interesting idea.

@StraightSilver: we do have a facebook page and we're currently looking at setting up a web page so we can post more about battle reports, forums etc. the good thing about the website is that we could put down other businesses that support the club and hopefully instill the idea that we aren't an arm of the store. the other problem is that the other store in town isn't flexible with hours (closes at 530 and not open over the weekend).

@Ketara: nope I noticed things didn't seem to move very fast on the other page.

If they think the club does not provide enough benefits then you need to find a way to do more (and so look more attractive)

the facebook seems a good first step

What else can some committed club members do ?

If you've got a decent terrain builder a modelling workshop might fly, you provide experience & location, they provide materials & labour

discounts on stuff ? See if you can arrange a bulk discount for purchases over $X with your local store, pool your buying power

(or even an internet retailer although that is higher risk as it would be a lot tricker to chase down if things went wrong and may depend on your local business laws as to whether whoever place the order would be liable if things did go wrong)

Where abouts are you, a venue change may be in order.

I think most has already been said, but I would reach out to members and do what we call at my job "start/stop/continue". Ask your members what they would want you to start doing, stop doing, and continue doing. That should give you some insight on keeping existing members and what you could do to intice new membership.

Also, you could add value to the membership. Ask yourself what benefits are members getting by joining other than having players to play against. Me personally, I can find players on forums or by just going to the store and asking when their player base plays. Live tutorials and workshops are a great way to add value and all it costs is a little time.

Just my $0.02

My club only meets once a month with an annual weekend event.

We have approx. a 100 members not all attend every night, meet at a community centre but we pay $6.00 a night or an annual fee $55.00 which includes the annual weekend event.

But we are open to any tabletop games, so Historical and various other gamers attend to.

The attraction of the community centre is larger tables we can setup 4 tables together and do large team games.

Our community centre has various sized rooms so as the club expanded we just moved over to a larger room and on our annual weekend we expand to three rooms with about 250 ish people attending.

It has taken along time to get to 100 members we started small as a basement group and went up and down in membership but we have been using the banquet hall section for about 15 years now?

We have been running for 40 plus years.

On regular game nights (Fridays) we run an Honour system concession selling candy bars and pop, it helps pay the bills.

We also are advertising for new members all the time as member turnover is always a problem. Web site good idea.

I hope some of this helps with ideas, good luck and good gaming.

Have you got a suggestion box in the place where the club meet? In my experience, people who leave clubs don't want to. They want the club to succeed, to offer what they want but sometimes it just doesn't, and at that point it's not worth the time or money.

Most potential deserters (for lack of a better word) would be happy to offer some improvement suggestions (or maybe even outline why exactly they're leaving), if they though they might improve the club as a result.

Thanks guy's. We had a bit of a meeting on Friday regarding where the club goes from here. As it turns out we're down to only a dozen current members and most of that dozen is made up of the committee.

Geez - one of my clubs has 15 regular members and we get by with only 3 committee members (president - who approaches other clubs and networks and puts the word out that we are around, secretary and treasurer (me).)

We've never been based in a store, though.
We started out as a PCYC group, but when local management began to lose our stuff, we moved out and into the local sports club where we hire their boardroom for our weekly meetings.

There is often (in Australia, anyway) an issue with perceived cliques that form in store environments - it happens less with non-store clubs. We have the support of a local store, and we send members to their events, and it benefits both of us.